Watch Carl Mesters discussing the role of catalysis in fuels development
'Easy oil' is no longer readily available and so we need to focus on the new challenges of unlocking alternative hydrocarbon resources and utilising more unconventional petrochemical feedstocks.
This is a challenging area, which can't be solved overnight. We have already made significant progress in developing our capability to use unconventional cracker feedstocks, including hydrowax and butane.
We are also ahead of the game in some fundamental new processes, such as Gas to Liquids (GTL) and Coal to Liquids that could open new process routes to chemicals.
Shell has been developing GTL technology for over 30 years, gaining understanding of the chemistry at the molecular level and operational experience with the world's first commercial GTL plant. We stayed in this arena when others stopped or pulled out and are currently involved in the building of the world's largest GTL plant in Qatar in the Middle East.
GTL will help to unlock the vast potential of the world's gas reserves. Its primary purpose is to convert natural gas into advanced, cleaner transport fuels but offers potential routes to other products including chemicals.
The technology is already capable of producing alcohols and solvents but it even has the potential to produce primary petrochemical building blocks such as ethylene, propylene and aromatics.
The principle behind the GTL process – production and conversion of synthesis gas - can also be applied to coal using another Shell technology.
Coal is still the world's most abundant fossil fuel – accounting for more than oil and gas combined. Shell's gasification technology, where pulverised coal is mixed with oxygen and steam at 1,500°C, can be used to turn virtually any coal - even the lowest grades - into purified synthesis gas.
We have taken the first big steps in the development of these two technologies but breaking down synthesis gas into smaller molecules like chemicals requires further research and development.
- step 1 - natural gas is converted into synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide
- step 2 - the synthesis gas can be reacted in a number of ways using catalysts
- step 3 - these reactions produce liquid products including diesel fuels, naphtha and kerosene, but could also produce chemicals including solvents, alcohols and even lower olefins.
Shell’s gasification technology can be also be used to produce synthesis gas from coal.
This feature was added to the Innovations section in December 2007.
